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Pals add Beck and Noel Gallagher to lineup to switch up sound on latest LP: ‘We’ve been hanging out together probably more than we ever have’
Photo by Larry Niehues /Nonesuch Records
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Up until recently, “fun” isn’t a word Akron natives Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have always been able to use when talking about their work as the Black Keys.
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After first hustling their way out of Ohio in the early 2000s, the garage-rock duo — which features Auerbach on vocals and guitar, with Carney on drums — hit the big time with Brothers in 2010. Backed by the chart-topping Lonely Boy and Gold on the Ceiling, the pair continued their run of success with El Camino in 2011. Turn Blue followed in 2014, before the childhood friends hit the brakes.
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When they returned in 2019 with Let’s Rock, the Black Keys entered a new phase of creativity. That album was followed in quick succession by their blues-drenched quarantine release Delta Kream in 2021 and the spirited riff-rocker Dropout Boogie in 2023.
After dealing with the meteoric success and scrutiny of those earlier releases, Auerbach says the last five years have reminded him of how he and Carney, who met as teenagers in high school, first started bonding over music nearly 30 years ago.
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“We’ve been hanging out together probably more than we ever have. Mostly because of these record hangs that we do where we play 45s together. It’s been really fun to hang out and geek out over music and get inspired by music,” Auerbach says.
But for their recently released 12th album, Ohio Players, the Black Keys wanted to give their blues-rock sound a stylistic makeover by making their most collaborative album, working with a new roster of musicians, including Beck, Noel Gallagher and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura.
“We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music.’” Auerbach says, “We just expanded that palette with people we wanted to work with.”
Auerbach says that after the success of Brothers, El Camino and Turn Blue, the band had reached a breaking point.
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“We’d just burned ourselves out and almost imploded in a way. We didn’t talk for a while just because we had been up each others a–es for so long.
Just constantly in the van together for years,” he says.
Photo by Larry Niehues /
Nonesuch Records
Auerbach laughs now, but as the Black Keys were experiencing some of their biggest professional highs he says that period of time was “just work, work, work and no fun.”
“I think it has taken us a really long time — like 20 years— to prioritize having fun and enjoying ourselves,” Auerbach says.
“What we wanted to accomplish with this record was make something that was fun,” Carney adds. “And something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.”
The high-energy first single Beautiful People (Stay High), co-written with Beck, is pure pop euphoria. Elsewhere, the pair dip into Brit-pop with the help from Gallagher on the anthemic On the Game. The former Oasis co-founder pops up later on the soaring Only Love Matters. Later, the duo travel back into retro-rock with a cover of 1968 William Bell/Booker T. Jones’ strings-infused I Forgot to Be Your Lover.
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Mining the ’90s of Loser, Beck takes over on lead vocals for Paper Crown with Juicy J of Three Six Mafia dropping in for a guest rap.
Auerbach says they wanted to recreate the loose feel of those “record hangs” when crafting the melting pot of sound of the new record.
“Honestly, those are a lot of fun,” he says. “So much fun.”
Earlier this week, the Black Keys announced their 31-date North American International Players tour, which touches down in Toronto on Oct. 11. It will mark yet another chapter for the twosome, who began making music together as teenagers.
In a recent conversation, Auerbach spoke more about how Beck and Noel Gallagher infused Ohio Players and how after over 20 years together the Black Keys have managed to keep it all together.
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When I spoke with Pat in 2019, it was a rebirth of sorts for the Black Keys. What was the spark that relit the flame between the two of you?
Basically, we had toured ourselves into the ground. We had to step back and realize no one is going to help us have fun. We have to do it ourselves. No one is going to suggest that we tour less and do fewer gigs. We have to know when to say when and try and be healthy in a way and not be total maniacs.
Ohio Players has some notable collaborators — Beck, Dan “the Automator” Nakamura, Noel Gallagher — how did they get involved?
On Delta Kream we brought in some collaborators. We called in Kenny Brown (electric guitar) and Eric Deaton (bass), and that was the first time we’d collaborated with other musicians in the studio. But that was so much fun. So for our next record, Dropout Boogie, we called in some friends, Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and (songwriter) Angelo Petraglia and it was great. What may have been difficult in the early part of our career, when we were young and insecure, was now kind of easy for us to navigate. So for this album, we thought, ‘Where else can we go? Who else can we work with that might be fun and surprising?’ Someone we’d always wanted to work with, who had given us a big break when we were starting out was Beck. We talked about working together, so we reached out to him and he was down. We got into the studio and the very first day we wrote This is Nowhere. That’s what set the ball rolling for this album.
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How did you link up with Noel?
Well, Beck went so well that we thought, ‘Who else could be interesting to write with?’ We thought of artists that we like that make iconic songs and he’s right on the top of the list. We didn’t know him personally; we’d met him a few times. So we reached out to his people … We heard back a few days later and they said he would be interested, so we packed our bags and we flew over to London. We didn’t know what was going to happen … It was just me, Noel and Pat in a room together just staring at each other (laughs). But we got into it and after the first day we’d written a song — Only Love Matters — and it took all the pressure off. We felt really good. We came back the next two days and we wrote a song a day. It was amazing. We got to hang out with Noel, watch him do his process, shoot the s—, he’s funny as hell. That was a really good hang.
It worked out.
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How do you two decide when it’s time to record again? Is it a text? Are you flipping burgers at a backyard BBQ and look at one another go, ‘It’s time’?
Well, we text a lot. We do a lot of texting at three in the morning. For this record, a lot of the action came out of doing these record hangs. We were doing those once or twice a month. It was a good opportunity for us to just get together and hang out. It inspires us to want to get in the studio. It makes us want to write songs. So it’s been nothing but good for us.
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You’ve been together for over 20 years. What was the ingredient that kept the two of you together?
It was equal parts: hard work, talent and sheer stupidity. We had to be all of those things equally to withstand the early days. I think that a lot of things have changed over the years, but when we get into the studio it still feels the same, to be honest. The possibilities are endless when I’m in the studio with Pat. I don’t know what it is, being around him, the dynamic we have, it just gives me so much confidence.
Initially you weren’t supposed to record with Pat. He showed up at your house to record you with a couple of other guys who bailed on you.
When we first started it was just me and Pat in high school, we were 16 and 17. Our brothers introduced us. We would record on the four-track and we would make tapes and it was fun and goofy. Then we both went away to college and we both dropped out and came back home. That’s where we found ourselves. Pat was working a dismal day job and I was playing in bars. I would play around Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, wherever … I was making money, tips and stuff. It was really good practice. But I needed to record a demo, something I could give to these club owners when I wanted to try and get some gigs. I hit up Pat about recording a demo for me and he agreed. I tried going to a studio and it just sounded like total s—. I called Pat up and we made a plan, and I told the guys and we went over to Pat’s dad’s house. We sat there on the front porch and my guys didn’t show up. Both of them blew it off. So I said, ‘F— it, let’s go in the basement. You play drums and I’ll do these couple of songs.’ We did it and those ended being the demos that we used to get our first record deal.
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So how did your rock star dreams measure up to what ended up happening in your careers — millions of albums sold, arena tours, Saturday Night Live, 13 Grammy nominations. That’s got to blow your mind.
It’s f—ing crazy, man. It’s crazy. We’re both super thankful for this thing we’ve been given. We don’t take it for granted. Being in this band is like winning the lottery.
What if music hadn’t of worked out for you. Did you have a Plan B?
Nah, man. We barely had a Plan A.
Pat told me his luckiest break was meeting you. What was your luckiest break?
Definitely moving to the neighbourhood that was down the street from Pat’s house. We were literally half a block from each other. That is like winning the lottery.
It’s hard to believe that I first spoke to you guys 16 years ago. Do you ever look ahead and imagine what the Black Keys might be like 10 years from now?
I don’t like to look back, but I don’t like to look that far ahead either. I sort of like to stay in the present and close future. All I know is Pat and I are in a really good place and I don’t see a reason for us to stop doing what we’re doing.
mdaniell@postmedia.com
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